GSA Technology Council

Monday Feb. 8th

6:30pm Greenville Mac User’s Group

The Greenville Mac User’s Group meets once a month to share tips, discuss the latest news and enjoy the company of other Macintosh User’s Normally Greenville MUG meets on the second Monday evening of the month (except for special events) in the Choir Room at Grace Baptist Church, 5020 Old Spartanburg Road, Taylors, SC. Come this month to address your specific Mac concerns and learn about the latest developments from Apple including the iPad – The Future of Computing. Rumors of a coming Apple tablet filled the media in the months preceding Apple’s January 27th’s Special Event which introduced the iPad. Apple calls the iPad “our most advanced technology in a magical and revolutionary devise at an unbelievable price.”

Tues Feb. 9th

6:30pm Upstate Linux User’s Group

The speaker for this month’s meeting will be Pete Graner, kernel team manager for Ubuntu/Canonical.

Tues Feb. 9th

6:00 – 8:00pm PMI Study Group

The Palmetto Chapter of PMI, the Project Management Institute, offers a study group for those preparing to sit for the PMP exam. The group is a free service to those who are members of PMI. For more information about the group and the local PMI chapter, visit their website.

Wed. Feb. 10th

11:30am GSATC Learning Lunch

Join us for our February Lunch as we have Peter Coffee of SalesForce.com talk to us about lessons learned in creating communities of your customers.

Thurs Feb. 11th

11:30am Java User’s Group

The group will have an introduction to Apache Maven and how it can be used to manage your development projects. It will discuss what Maven can do and concentrate on the simplicity of its use. Example projects will be constructed. Everyone is encouraged to bring a laptop so they can try it out for themselves.

Grand Strand Technology Council will be hosting the inaugural Grand Strand TechEXPO on Thursday, February 11 at the Crown Reef Resort in Myrtle Beach, SC. Scheduled from noon until 7 p.m. in the Crown Reef Resort’s Ballroom, exhibits will showcase technology products and services from companies and organizations along the Grand Strand. There is no charge for attendance ans the event is open to the public. More information as www.gstechexpo.org.

via: Grand Strand Tech Expo

Electric Bus company Proterra announces it will build a manufacturing plant in Greenville, SC at CU-ICAR Campus. Photography by Patrick Greer.

View photo gallery.

The Clemson Small Business Development Center (SBDC) is pleased to sponsor a class on learning the basics of the most popular financial software on the market. This hands-on QuickBooks program is designed for those with basic computer skills who want to know what is really necessary to make their business financial operations run more efficiently. The program is presented using 2009 software, by a Certified QuickBooks Pro Advisor with substantial experience in small business financial management. Class size is limited for optimal instruction, and all attendees receive workbooks and material from Quickbooks.

Pre-registration with payment is required.

WHEN
Feb 23rd & 25th , 2010 (2-Part Class) 9:00 am – 1:00 pm

WHERE
Small Business Development Center Training Room, 55 East Camperdown Way, Greenville

INVESTMENT
$225 for class only or $275 for class and an individual one-on-one consultation;
Workbook included.

To Register, Call 864.370.1545

via: Clemson

Verizon Wireless, provider of the nation’s largest and most reliable 3G network, has been ranked highest in customer care among wireless phone service providers in J.D. Power and Associates’ 2010 Wireless Customer Care Performance StudySM – Volume 1, released today.

Based on responses from more than 9,600 wireless subscribers who contacted their wireless service providers by phone, in stores or online last year and were surveyed by J. D. Power and Associates between July and December of 2009, Verizon Wireless continued to perform as an industry leader with an overall satisfaction score of 753, 14 points above the overall industry average. Verizon Wireless’ score included former Alltel customers in retained markets.

Verizon Wireless regularly enhances and expands its customer service capabilities to serve its growing customer base:

· By Phone – Verizon Wireless recently introduced an after-call survey to provide fast, direct feedback from more customers to help the company further improve the customer experience.
· In Stores – Verizon Wireless continues to roll out its evolutionary design in new and existing company-owned and -operated Communications Stores, offering shoppers a high-tech, hands-on experience with wireless voice, data, music and video services.
· Online – Verizon Wireless customers can manage their accounts online using My Verizon, the company’s online account management and customer service tool. My Verizon provides customers with 24/7 online access to all their billing, payment and account-related information and offers customers the ability to view and pay bills online through the company’s Green Bill, check account balances, change addresses, track airtime usage, analyze monthly spending trends or change account features.

via: Verizon Wireless

Proterra Inc., which develops and assembles drive and energy storage systems for heavy-duty vehicles, including their ground-breaking BE-35 fast-charge battery-electric transit bus, today announced that it will locate a facility in Greenville County at the Clemson University International Center for Automotive Research (CU-ICAR) for research and development as well as assembly of its products. Gov. Mark Sanford, Sen. Lindsey Graham, Sen. Jim DeMint, Rep. Bob Inglis, Mayor Knox White, Greenville County Council Chairman H. G. “Butch” Kirven Jr., Clemson University President James Barker, the South Carolina Department of Commerce, the Greenville Area Development Corporation and the South Carolina Research Authority joined Proterra in making the announcement today.

“We are very excited to pursue the next stage of Proterra’s manufacturing and development in Greenville. This new facility will be our first full-scale, state-of-the-art research and development and manufacturing facility for our groundbreaking clean transportation solutions. Several months ago, Proterra retained the help of eRealty Companies Inc. and NPB Capital to assist in the site selection process. After a nation-wide search involving some 30 states, we selected Greenville, South Carolina as a result of the state’s numerous benefits in terms of workforce capabilities and research and development support. Additionally, we were impressed by the efforts of the Governor, the federal delegation, the local officials and economic development entities which far exceeded our expectations. We look forward to continuing a long and fruitful level of collaboration with the state of South Carolina and City of Greenville,” said Jeff Granato, CEO of Proterra Inc.

Proterra and its partners design, develop and assemble all electric and battery dominant hybrid drive solutions and complete vehicles for commercial applications including transit, school and commercial buses, parcel delivery vehicles and other class 4-8 trucks. Its revolutionary BE-35 fast charge battery electric transit bus has been tested at the Federal Transit Administration’s Altoona Center as achieving between 17 and 21 miles per gallon (diesel equivalent), a roughly 500 percent improvement over conventional diesel buses. Proterra’s very first vehicle, a battery dominant fuel cell hybrid transit bus funded by the FTA, is in service in Columbia, South Carolina. Proterra is headquartered in Golden, Colorado at the Coors Technology Center.

“Proterra’s decision to put down roots in South Carolina represents not only a significant investment and new job opportunities, but also another step toward expanding our state’s role in the growing market of next generation clean technologies,” said Gov. Sanford. “I’d offer the state’s appreciation to Sec. Taylor and his team at Commerce along with all our economic development partners at the state and local levels for their combined efforts to make our state that much more competitive in this global economy. With that said, we look forward to welcoming the Proterra team to South Carolina.”

Proterra anticipates that it will invest $68 million and create more than 1,300 new jobs over the next seven years in Greenville County. The company will hire a variety of skilled workers to support functions ranging from mechanical assembly, warehouse, logistics, managerial, engineering and quality assurance.

The South Carolina Department of Commerce has approved Proterra for the Job Development Credits program, which is a performance-based incentive directly related to new job creation and new capital investment. Additionally, Commerce will make two grants to Greenville County totaling $3 million to assist with site preparation and infrastructure improvements for the project.
Upstate South Carolina will be home to one of the nation’s most innovative transportation companies with today’s announcement that Proterra has chosen CU-ICAR as home for its assembly and research and development facilities.

“This is a red letter day, not just for Greenville, but for the Upstate and for South Carolina. Proterra opens the door to a whole new range of innovative enterprises to come. We are very proud of our team who worked very hard to make this happen, and we are very proud of our newest corporate citizen – Proterra,” said H. G. “Butch” Kirven Jr., GADC director and chairman of Greenville County Council.
“This is exciting news for Clemson University, for Greenville and for South Carolina,” Clemson University President James F. Barker said. “Proterra is an innovative, dynamic company that brings a new dimension to the CU-ICAR campus. Its product and processes fit the CU-ICAR curriculum and our program-driven campus perfectly. We look forward to a great partnership.”

“In addition to Clemson University, many others have worked tirelessly over the past several months to convince Proterra that CU-ICAR is the right place to realize their goals for the future,” Barker added.

“Not unlike the recent Boeing 787 announcement, this is another example of South Carolina leading in the green economy. The bus that Proterra is going to build in Greenville will not only be good for the environment, but it will help this nation break our dependency on foreign oil,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham. “I applaud local and state leaders for helping make the case that South Carolina is a great place to do business.”

“This exciting news reaffirms South Carolina as one of the best places in the world to do business,” said Sen. Jim DeMint. “We can all be proud of the strategic partnership between economic development professionals, education and research leaders and elected officials at every level that helped attract these much-needed jobs. Proterra’s decision to locate in Greenville is one more step towards the fulfillment of the long-term vision of the Upstate as a world-class automotive cluster. I’m confident this investment will pay dividends for both Proterra and our community for years to come.”

Proterra’s decision to invest in Greenville was the result of a coordinated team effort from the federal delegation to the local level.

“We’re excited to welcome Proterra to the Upstate and CU-ICAR. This commitment on the part of Proterra continues to show the way CU-ICAR is fulfilling its promise to create jobs and help South Carolina lead nationally in reinventing the car,” Inglis said. “Proterra exemplifies the can-do spirit of Americans by creating new jobs through innovation and in the process helping break our dependence on the Middle East for oil. This goes to show that the road to energy security and economic recovery runs through the Upstate of South Carolina.”
“Proterra’s landing in South Carolina is the result of both team effort and growing alignment among business, academic, governmental and economic development partners,” said Bill Mahoney, SCRA Chief Executive Officer. “While SCRA’s SC Launch program has been primarily focused on support of start-up companies, in concert with our partners across the state, we’ll see more and more landing parties like Proterra arrive in South Carolina to further strengthen the knowledge economy here. These important high-tech businesses are closely aligning with the vertical markets that our research universities and their economic development partners have targeted.”
The City of Greenville will not only add an innovative transportation company to its business community, but Greenville will also purchase buses from Proterra for the City’s public transit use.

“Proterra’s location in Greenville is another piece in the CU-ICAR puzzle that establishes it as one of the premier locations for leading edge transportation and technology companies,” said Greenville Mayor Knox White.

In addition to state and local officials, Proterra thanked the following parties for their efforts: Greenville Area Development Corporation, the South Carolina Energy Office, readySC™, the Clemson University Real Estate Foundation and many others.

Proterra will lease 25 acres in Technology Neighborhood Three on the CU-ICAR campus to construct a 240,000-square-foot building, with the potential to expand into the entire 50-acre site. Construction is expected to begin in the spring of 2010. A ground-breaking ceremony will be held at a future date.

Proterra will work with readySC™ on workforce training and job placement. Please note that hiring will begin at a future date that has yet to be determined. Information regarding Proterra may be obtained by visiting www.proterra.com, and for interest in the new facility, please contact: Greenville@Proterra.com.

via: Proterra

The stream of the Proterra Annoucement will go live at 2pm EST 2/4/2010.

The event can be viewed at http://www.clemson.edu/tlt/stream/live/

Immedion, LLC, South Carolina’s first dedicated data center and managed services provider has been selected by the City of Charleston for virtual hosting services. After careful consideration, the City of Charleston selected Immedion because they offered an excellent level of services at a highly competitive price.

Before deciding on Immedion, the City of Charleston had been actively looking for a new data center for hosting services. “We were looking to rebuild our site and move to a new provider at the same time,” shares Wes Ratterree, the City of Charleston’s CIO. “Because of budgeting constraints the new site was put on the back burner, but we still had to move over to a new provider as soon as possible,” he states. “We had been looking at top tier providers in the southeast region and narrowed it down to three. After reviewing RFP responses from our top choices, we determined Immedion provided the level and quality of services we wanted at a price we couldn’t pass up,” explains Ratterree.

Immedion was a good fit for the City of Charleston from both a cost and timeliness perspective. “The city needed something now and we did everything in our power to make it happen for them,” comments Frank Mobley, Immedion’s CEO. Within less than a week The City of Charleston had signed a contract and moved their entire site over to Immedion’s virtual platform. “This partnership further establishes Immedion as the premier hosting and data center services provider in the state of SC,” comments Mobley. “It is important to us to make sure our customers get exactly what they need when they need it.”

For the City of Charleston the “overall experience has been very pleasant and encouraging. Immedion has been incredibly responsive to our needs, and the relocation of our Internet sites occurred without a single issue,” comments Ratterree.

via: Immedion

New Carolina and South Carolina’s Recycling Industry Group today announced the release of a new specialty license
plate that promotes recycling through the introduction of the “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle” specialty plate. The Recycling Industry Group is
one of the state’s economic clusters supported by New Carolina, South Carolina’s Council on Competitiveness.
Recycling is a thriving $6.5 billion industry in South Carolina that benefits both the economy and environment.

The Recycling Industry Group held a design contest for the specialty plate design and Janice Antley of Greer-based Mighty Mouse
Productions in was the winner. The Greater Greenville Sanitation Commission provided financial support to the Carolina Recycling
Association to advance the funding for the plate production fee. Proceeds from the plate will benefit the Carolina Recycling Association to
develop programs and outreach to grow recycling and enhance its importance as a smart solution to waste management through avoided
disposal fees, job creation and investment, and quality of life in the state.

“We are excited to promote the new recycling specialty plate to South Carolina citizens and encourage recycling with the message of
‘Reduce, Reuse, Recycle’ on vehicles traveling in South Carolina and across the United States. Underscoring the message of recycling,
each license plate is also made from recycled aluminum,” said Ronnie Grant, chair of the Recycling Industry Group.
“We are proud to bring the ‘Reduce, Reuse, Recycle’ plate, which will bring awareness of recycling to a broad audience in the state, and
we are appreciative of the support we’ve received to be able to make this plate a reality,” said Gerry Fishbeck, chair of the South Carolina
Department of Commerce’s Recycling Market Development Advisory Council.

The specialty plates are a joint effort of New Carolina’s Recycling Industry Group, the Carolina Recycling Association, South Carolina
Department of Commerce’s Recycling Market Development Advisory Council, the Greater Greenville Sanitation Commission, Mighty
Mouse Productions and others who support South Carolina’s recycling industry.

“The ‘Reduce, Reuse, Recycle’ plate will bring a new level of awareness to recycling and being green in South Carolina,” said Holly
Bullman, president of the Carolina Recycling Association.

The “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle” plate is among the first issued through the South Carolina Department of Motor Vehicles (SCDMV)
digital “on demand” process, which means the plates are not available in SCDMV field offices. Instead, the plates will be printed and
mailed as vehicle owners place orders.

The fee for the specialty “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle” plates is $30 every two years, in addition to the regular motor vehicle registration fee.
Interested customers may place their license plate orders by mail, at http://www.scdmvonline.com, or at any SCDMV field office on form
MV-95. Applications will be processed within three to five business days.

via: New Carolina

Space Exploration Technologie srecently conducted a three-day long demonstration of cargo loading and unloading procedures for its Dragon spacecraft, which NASA has contracted to provide delivery services to the International Space Station (ISS) starting in 2010.

SpaceX hosted a group of NASA personnel at its corporate headquarters in Hawthorne, CA, including astronauts Marsha Ivins and Megan McArthur, and other key personnel from NASA‘s Johnson Space Center in Houston.

The tests covered a range of procedures using actual NASA cargo modules, in a variety of standard sizes, including powered cargo modules that provide temperature control for sensitive items such as medical and biological samples during their journey to the ISS, and return to Earth. Dragon is currently one of the only spacecraft in the world capable of transmitting status on environment-sensitive cargo back to Earth during transit to the ISS.

SpaceX performed the tests in an actual flight Dragon spacecraft outfitted with cargo racks, stowage lockers, as well as interior lighting, telemetry and environmental systems, as will be employed while Dragon is berthed at the ISS.

“SpaceX was honored to host the NASA crew, and pleased by their positive feedback and remarks,” said John Couluris, SpaceX Director of Mission Operations. “We look forward to the day when the first of many Dragons arrive at the ISS delivering actual cargo in support of continued ISS operations.”

Under NASA’s Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) program, SpaceX will perform three flights of the Dragon spacecraft to demonstrate delivery of cargo to the ISS as well as returning cargo to Earth. Following those flights, SpaceX will begin the NASA Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) contract, conducting a minimum of 12 cargo flights between 2010 and 2015 with a guaranteed minimum of 20,000 kg to be carried to the ISS.

SpaceX’s Falcon 9 is a medium-to-heavy lift, two-stage launch vehicle capable of lifting approximately 11 tons to low Earth orbit (LEO) and in excess of 4.5 tons to Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit (GTO). Designed to the highest levels of reliability and performance, SpaceX’s Falcon 9 and Dragon spacecraft were selected by NASA to resupply the ISS when the Space Shuttle retires.

via: SpaceX